The effect of motivation, family environment, and student characteristics on academic achievement

This paper is designed to inquiry the effect of motivation, family environment, and scholar characteristics on academic achievement. The inquiry was conducted on 388 high gymnasium students (193 males and 195 females) from Abu Dhabi District, United Arab Emirates (UAE). A Likert-type instrument that consisted of three parts (scales) was used to measure students' horizontal of motivation, parental influences, and students' characteristics, while academic achievement was measured using student's GPA. Calculations were also breakdown by the agency of gender to assess differences between male and female pupils Students' mean level of motivation was les than the means of parental influence and student's characteristics. No sex differences were observed on the variables measured by means of the instrument. Correlations between each of motivation, family environment, scholar characteristics and academic achievement were small and practically not significant. Remarkably high correlation value was observ between motivation and learners characteristic. The highest correlation value was observ between family environment and students' characteristics. be deriveds were discussed on the light of other studies' findings and results

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Intelligence is not the solitary determinant of academic achievement. High motivation and engagement in learning have consistently been linked to reduc dropout rates and increased horizontals of student success (Kushman, Sieber, & Harold, 2000) unravelling of academic intrinsic motivation in pupils is an important goal for educators because of its inherent important for coming time motivation as well as for student's effective academy functioning (Gottfried, 1990). The hardly any studies that have examined motivation in young children have place that it is a week predictor of achievement (Stipek & Ryan, 1997) The family is the primary social combination of parts to form a whole for children. Rollins and Thomas (1979) rest that high parental control were associated with high achievement. Cassidy and Lynn (1991) included a specific factor of the family's socioeconomic status, crowding, as an indicator of in what manner being disadvantaged affects educational attainment. They base that a less physically herded environment, along with motivation and parental support, were associated with higher educational horizontals of children. Religiosity as an aspect of the family environment is another independent variable possibly influencing academic achievement (Bahr, Hawks, & Wang, 1993) Cassidy and Lynn (1991) explored in what manner family environment impacts motivation and achievement. This means that motivation serv as a mediating variable between dwelling background, personal characteristics, and educational attainment.

Higher-achieving scholars are likely to have the following characteristics: positive feelings about their gymnasium experiences; attribute their success in high gymnasium to such things as hard work, self-discipline, organization, ability, and high motivation; attend to watch relatively little television during the gymnasium week; tend to associate with learners who also were successful in school; and avid readers (WEAC, 2005)

This paper is designed to research the effect of motivation, family environment, and pupil characteristics on academic achievement. Research in this area should increase the awareness to concentrate upon student's motivation in an effort to increase effective institute functioning in the later years and eventually improve our educational stature.

Review of the Literature

Early motivational theorists in psychology attempted to explain motivation in many different settings and for many kinds of behaviors (Weiner, 1990) Motivation is referr to as multidimensional: it measures impulsive and deliberate action, is affected with the internal and external factors, and take note ofs causes for behavior. Harter (1983) propos a protoplast of mastery or effectance motivation, describing the events of both success and failure experiences upon mastery motivation. The goals of effectance motivation are acquiring fitness and influencing one's environment (Eccle Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998) Mastery motivation is defined as a general proclivity to interact with and to expres influence above the environment.

According to Goldberg (1994) children with intrinsic motivation in academic would have higher self-perceptions of capableness in academics and that children who are extrinsically motivated would have lower perceived academic capableness Harter's effectance motivation theory is important because it includes the events of both success and failure upon subsequent motivation (Eccles, Wigfield, & Schiefele, 1998)

Student's motivation for learning is generally regarded as upon of the most critical determinants, if not the premier determinant, of the succes and quality of any learning result (Mitchell, 1992). Examining the raise of intrinsic motivation in elementary place of education students is significant and important, because academic intrinsic motivation in the elementary years may have fathomless implications for initial and time to come school success. Students who are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated fare better and learners who are not motivated to engage in learning are unlikely to succe (Gottfried, 1990)